Lu You's Poetry and Frustration
"The Spring Rain in Lin'an" is one of Lu You's masterpieces, and has received many comments in the past dynasties. Huang Chang once said that "A small building listens to the spring rain all night", "Fourteen characters paint the spirit of Jiang Nanchun". Lu You was 62 years old when he wrote this poem, and had been idle for 5 years in his hometown of Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang). When he entered Beijing again, the high spirits of the poet in his youth and the frivolity of Qiu Ma in his prime were all tossed away in the ups and downs of his life. Although his ambition to restore the Central Plains has not faded, he is increasingly despairing of the weak and dark Southern Song Dynasty. In the spring of the thirteenth year of Chunxi (1186), the author entered Beijing by edict and accepted the post of governor of Yanzhou. Before taking office, he first went to Lin'an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang) to meet the emperor, and lived in an inn beside the West Lake to wait for his summons. In the midst of boredom, he wrote this masterpiece that has been passed down through the ages.
